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A shrug. “Just that I figure you to be the type with stick-to-itiveness. Care if I have a look around?”
Terri was too tired to protest. She waved him on. “Go for it.”
She followed closely from one room to the next. Luke peeked around the corner into the kitchen. He went for the bathroom next, drawing back the shower curtains and replacing them.
“What are you doing exactly?” she asked him, moving to the side so he could get past her.
“Making sure everything is secure,” he replied, opening first her guest bedroom, then her own. He stopped to study the room. “I think you might have a hoarding problem,” he told her.
Terri glanced over his shoulder seeing the large queen bed framed by two bedside tables topped with elegant Tiffany lamps. There was an armchair in the corner by the closet, a five-drawer pine dresser she had picked up at a flea market and painted white to match the rest of the furniture, and a cedar chest at the foot of the bed.
“What?” she said defensively. “This isn’t that bad.”
He shook his head, a glimmer of a smile creeping up on his face. “No, not nearly as bad as the guest room, I’d say.”
“Well nobody asked you,” she snapped.
No longer in the mood to be judged, Terri shoved past Luke, hastily grabbing the handle and slamming the door shut.
Laughing, Luke followed her back into the living room.
“I didn’t mean anything by it, honest,” he insisted.
Terri wasn’t having any of it. She had long grown tired of having to answer to a man.
She spun on him, shoving a finger in his face. “Who taught you that you could just traipse into someone’s house and start passing judgment, huh?”
He held up his hands in self-defense. “I’m sorry, Terri. Really.”
Narrowing her eyes briefly, Terri backed off. If she wanted to keep her job, she better not get on her boss’s bad side. “Don’t let it happen again,” she warned.
Luke tracked her as she moved around the room, retrieving the afghan she kept draped over the loveseat. She folded it into squares just for something to do. The man had a way of stirring up nervous energy.
“Do you want something to drink?” she asked, growing tired of looking for something to distract herself while he stared after her.
“No, thank you,” he said quickly. Taking two steps back, Luke opened the front door. “I should be heading home.”
“Okay.” Terri crossed the room to see him out. Polite as ever, she mused, holding the door open as he stepped out onto the porch.
“I’ll swing by to pick you up at four,” he informed her, and took off down the short path leading back to the driveway. Stopping midstride, he spun back around. “And Terri?”
She raised her brows.
“Don’t forget to keep a light on.”
Jerking upright, she saluted him. “Yes, sir!”
He grinned as he made his way to the car. Terri waited until he was out of sight before shutting and double-locking the door. Call her paranoid, but she felt much better having sturdy locks barring the outside world from intruding on her personal space.
A smile tipped her lips as she readied herself for bed. Luke may be her boss, but he had captured her attention from day one. She often replayed that fateful day she walked into SunsetBlack. She was desperate for a job, and no one had wanted to take the time to train someone with no skills, no job experience, and no references. She had the word unemployable stamped across her forehead it seemed.
Determined to land something before she went fully bankrupt and ended up homeless, Terri marched into the dimly lit club during peak hours of operation and demanded that she be interviewed. It was the first time she ever stood up for herself or raised her voice to anyone. So of course it wasn’t a character she could maintain.
About halfway through the forced interview, about the time Luke was preparing to turn her away, Terri broke down into tears, utterly defeated.
Worried by her obviously fragile mental state and realizing the deep need for her to have this job, he offered to start her right away. As in that night. She didn’t know a thing about bartending or waitressing, but she was eager to learn and that seemed to make all the difference.
It was a rough start, but she thrived under the constant praise and encouragement from Luke, picking up things easily. Despite her attraction to him, as well as half the staff who looked at him with lust-filled eyes, she figured out pretty fast that he didn’t see any of them in the same light. They were more like sisters to him, and he kept a watchful eye to make sure they were staying out of trouble and trouble wasn’t finding them in turn. He offered a certain sense of brotherly protection, a shelter from the rain. Even though the pay wasn’t so great, Terri grew to love working at Sunset Black. The view wasn’t so bad either.
